Chinese multinational Alibaba, the owner of the online shopping portal AliExpress, has stopped accepting payments in rubles and no longer allows the delivery of orders to Russia, Russian business newspaper Kommersant reported on May 28.
Citing its sources, Kommersant said that Alibaba has "tightened the conditions for Russian business," leading to a change in its payment and delivery policies.
Kommersant referred to a Russian economic expert, who "linked Alibaba's decision to fears of secondary sanctions, which have caused other problems with Russian payments in China."
Financial transactions between Russia and China have been increasingly complicated since the start of the year, as Chinese bank strengthen their compliance with Western sanctions announced in December 2023 that target financial institutions that support Russia's war effort.
Three of China's four largest banks reportedly stopped accepting payments from sanctioned Russian financial institutions at the start of the year.
China's Chouzhou Commercial Bank then notified its clients in Russia and Belarus in February that it would end operations with them due to payment issues.
Reports emerged in March that several Chinese banks had stopped accepting payments from Russia in Chinese yuan.
Ukraine's National Corruption Prevention Agency added Alibaba to its list of international sponsors of war in August 2023 for supporting Russia financially by paying taxes in the country and for allegedly facilitating the sale of copper exported from the occupied territories of Ukraine through its platforms.
Nate Ostiller
